Indy's new and improved park system
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The new Grassy Creek Environmental Community Center and the city's biggest playground are ready for the summer. Photo: Courtesy of Indy Parks and Recreation
If you haven't hit a local trail or been to a pool in a while, there's a chance your favorite park has gotten a facelift since your last visit.
Why it matters: A multiyear, multimillion-dollar plan to strengthen Indy's parks is bearing fruit across the Circle City this summer as new and improved facilities debut.
State of play: Last month's grand opening of the Grassy Creek Environmental Community Center on the east side marks the end of the $45 million Circle City Forward initiative announced in 2021 to improve our parks.
- It also included the Riverside Adventure Park, which opened May 1; the Frederick Douglass Park Family Center, which opened in May 2024; the renovated Krannert Park Family Center, which opened in January 2024; and the Riverside Promenade, which opened in October 2023.
Yes, but: Circle City Forward was just one piece of a more than $140 million parks investment puzzle that also includes the city's $16 million American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding and an $80 million Lilly Endowment grant to pay for improvements across 42 parks.
Zoom in: The ARPA projects will transform 28 playgrounds in 26 parks by the end of this year. Seventeen of those projects are done.
- In addition, ARPA funding covered the cost of the Wes Montgomery Basketball Pavilion, which opened late last year.
- Lilly grant projects currently under construction include Tarkington Park, Holliday Park, Washington Park and Garfield Park.
Stunning stat: The funding will allow Indy Parks and Recreation to replace more than 40% of the city's 132 playgrounds, according to Indy Parks spokesperson Alex Cortwright.
Flashback: The city's post-pandemic push to make our parks better came years after falling to the bottom of the annual ParkScore Index rankings alongside Fort Wayne in 2017.
- The two cities have since opted out of participating in ParkScore, according to a spokesman for the Trust for Public Land, a pro-park nonprofit that compiles the rankings.
- While Indy isn't part of the rankings, the nonprofit's assessment of the city found that just 4% of its land is used for parks and recreation, well below the national median of 15%.
- Meanwhile, the nonprofit says, 35% of Indianapolis residents live within a 10-minute walk of one of our more than 220 parks. That's a far cry from the national average of 76% among the 100 most populous U.S. cities, and 57% among all urban communities.
Between the lines: Cortwright said that scoring is affected in part by our city's history.
- Many of our parks were established before the "Unigov" legislation that merged city and county governments in 1970, expanding the city's territorial jurisdiction from 82 to 402 square miles.
- The majority of our parks are within the old city boundaries, he said.
What they're saying: "That's where you see a lot of those empty areas, and where we're looking to establish more parks. That's why things like what we're working on in Decatur Township where we acquired some land last year are really so important," Cortwright said.
- "It's a priority for folks when they move or look to buy a house and all these. Knowing that there are quality parks in the area is really important."